The hostel has been quite comfortable overnight, quiet and cool we had a bit of a much needed lie in before heading out to the killing Fields.
We grabbed some lunch in a bakery before heading back to the hostel to ask what was a reasonable tuk tuk price to pay. The owner pointed to a man and said he will take you he’s a TukTuk driver but he already had a pick up planned. It seems that everyone here is a TukTuk driver!! Another man took us there for 15dollars return and waited for us to go round. He must have taken us through all the back lanes to get there the roads were terrible, the plastic rubbish is piling up along the roads of the basic residential areas. We went across a bridge which didn’t look as though it was going to last another day, all the metal sheets were moving and you could see the stream beneath, the last place we wanted to be was in that water!! The roads were that bad that the chain came off his bike and he had to stop to repair it.
The killing Fields are right next to a village which surprised us. I gave the driver a wetwipe for the oil over his hands but he didn’t get what it was!!
The first thing that we saw on arrival to the museum was the monument built for the victims. It also houses all the skills and long bones that they have found at the field. This is 17stories high!
We got an audio tour round. Again to think the was his is described was only 40years ago is too difficult to comprehend. There are over 300 more killing Fields in the country, some not even yet found.
The keepers of the graves have to go round every 2-3months and remove the bones that have risen up from the earth beneath. What struck me the most is the many rags of clothes entangles round the tree roots that cannot be lifted, the colours still visible.
We found our driver and he took us back to the hostel. From here I did a quick change from long pants to shorts and we found a bar to sit in for the rest of the afternoon. We booked flights that we know the dates we need such as Borneo to Singapore and looked for Thailand travel but this is not going to be straight forward unless we fork out big money. The problem were having now is that many of the flights don’t include baggage so we are being stung here.
We ended up having LOTS of beer throughout the afternoon and falling asleep for half an hour when we got back.
At night time we went to the night market to get tea. Hundreds of people were sat on carpets in the middle of the food stalls. I knew David was less than impressed because there were a few flies hovering around the bright light, but we’re in a hot country and on the riverside so it’s unavoidable. After the usually fried rice and veg for David and noodles and veg for me we got ice-cream in coconut shells, with peanuts and sweetcorn on top,weird!!!
After eating we went for a drink and played cards, we started inside because of the amount of flies on the Riverside. We then went to find another bar but ended up in Phnom penhs redlight district!!!! Hundreds of women sat outside seedy bars, neon lights, the odd male westerner having drinks. Straight back to our hotel it was for drinks instead!
At our hotel there was a sign out for breakfast options. I thought army style eggs must have been hardboiled eggs, it couldn’t be any other style! David cracked up, any style eggs!
Tomorrow is another early start, at the embassy for 8am…we might be back to this hostel if things don’t go to plan!
South East Asia 2019 